BEIRUT (Dispatches) -- Lebanon’s Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday that its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, was martyred after the occupying regime of Israel launched a series of barbaric airstrikes on the Lebanese capital a day earlier.
In an assassination that risks triggering all-out war in a region already on the brink, Zionist warplanes dropped approximately 10 bunker-busting bombs on residential buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, an area colloquially known as Dahiyeh, on Friday.
The Zionist military immediately confirmed it was behind the strikes and initially claimed it targeted Hezbollah’s command centre. Later, Israeli media reported that Nasrallah, 64, was the intended target of the strikes.
The Zionist military said Nasrallah was martyred alongside Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, as well as a number of other commanders.
Later, Hezbollah said in a statement: “His Eminence, the Master of Resistance, the righteous servant, has joined his Lord and His pleasure as a great martyr — an outstanding, courageous, wise, and insightful leader — joining the ranks of the radiant martyrs of Karbala in the divine journey of faith, following in the footsteps of the prophets and martyr imams.” 
“The leadership of Hezbollah vows to the highest, most sacred, and dearest martyr in our journey, filled with sacrifices and martyrs, to continue its struggle against the enemy, supporting Gaza and Palestine, and defending Lebanon and its steadfast, honorable people,” it added.
According to analysts, the man widely regarded as Nasrallah’s successor, Hashem Safieddine, survived Friday’s attack.
Safieddine, who oversees Hezbollah’s political affairs and sits on the group’s Jihad Council, is a cousin of Nasrallah. Like Nasrallah, he is a cleric and descendant of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him).
Speaking to reporters in New York on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the terrorist attack as Israel’s right to self-defense and said Washington would take “every measure” if its interests in the region were attacked.
Blinken’s remarks came shortly after Abu Alaa al-Walaei, a senior commander from Iraq’s Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades, warned that if an all-out war broke out, his group would target U.S. and Israeli interests in the region.
“Even the [United Arab] Emirates, which we consider the advanced site of the usurping entity, will be the first line of targeting,” Walaei said, according to the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen website.
Born in 1960 to a Shia family from east Beirut’s Karantina, Nasrallah became head of Hezbollah’s executive council in 1985 as well as a member of its Shura Council.
In 1992, Hezbollah’s then-leader, Abbas al-Musawi, was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike along with his wife and child. Speaking at his funeral, Nasrallah said: “We will continue this path… even if we are martyred, all of us and our houses demolished over our heads, we will not abandon the choice of the Islamic resistance.”
Nasrallah then took the reins of Hezbollah and soon after, the group began acquiring more sophisticated weaponry, including long-range rockets capable of reaching deeper into Israeli occupied territory.
Under Nasrallah, whose surname translates to “victory through God”, Hezbollah grew from a local armed movement to the largest political party in Lebanon’s recent history. 
In October 2021, Nasrallah said that Hezbollah had 100,000 fighters, making it also among the most powerful non-state armed organizations in the world.
He also maintained Hezbollah’s reputation throughout the Arab world as the only armed force to have successfully driven Israel to retreat from an Arab country.
The Hezbollah leader’s speeches would often attract the attention of the Middle East and beyond.
During his time as Hezbollah’s number one, Nasrallah also saw the further 

cementing of ties within “axis of resistance”, which includes Hezbollah, Syria, the Palestinian movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the Ansarullah movement in Yemen and several Iraqi paramilitary groups.
Following Friday’s strikes, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Ansarullah and the Islamic Resistance of Iraq all released statements of condemnation against Israel.
“We renew our absolute solidarity with the brotherly Lebanese people and the brothers in Hezbollah and the Islamic resistance in Lebanon,” Hamas said in a statement.
“We share their pain and hope for victory over this Zionist enemy, and we value and commend their sacrifices and steadfastness in the epic of open accountability in support of our people and our resistance, and in response and defense of the brotherly Lebanese people.”